51. Fairmount Park
9301 Collinsville Road, Collinsville, Illinois
Rogers Hornsby is, without doubt, one of the greatest Cardinals of all time. In his thirteen seasons with the Redbirds, he posted an incredible line of .359/.427/.568 with 2,110 hits, 193 home runs and 1,072 RBI. In three seasons he finished with a batting average above .400, and in 1924, he hit a mind-boggling .424.
Hornsby was also an inveterate gambler. It cost him money, of course. (At one point, he turned to farming in the offseason to earn money.) It also cost him his first marriage, after he had an affair with a woman he met at a Collinsville, Illinois, dog track. (She would become his second wife.) And it cost him the respect of his peers: When the Cubs released him during the 1932 season, Hornsby counted several teammates among those to whom he owed money.
Finally, it cost Hornsby his livelihood. In 1937 he was the player-manager for the St. Louis Browns. One day he bet $1,000 across the board on a long-shot horse named Quince King at Fairmount Park. The horse won, earning Hornsby $35,000. The next day he repaid a debt to team president Donald Barnes. This was further confirmation of what Barnes and the Browns had already known: Hornsby's gambling urge was as strong as ever.
He was fired, marking the end of his Hall of Fame career.
52. Sporting News Headquarters
SE corner of Tenth and Olive streets (1910-1946)
2018 Washington Avenue (1946-1969)
St. Louis sportswriter Alfred Spink founded the Sporting News with his brother Charles in 1886. Its comprehensive coverage of baseball earned it the nickname "The Bible of Baseball." The publication remained in the hands of the Spink family until the late 1970s. In the following decades, the explosion of sports media in print, on TV and online greatly reduced the paper's influence. The brand was sold several times, most recently to a Charlotte, North Carolina-based company. It no longer has any presence in St. Louis.
53. Francis Field, Washington University
Big Bend and Forsyth boulevards, University City
Before the 1919 season, the Cardinals were so broke that team president Branch Rickey decided to hold spring training in St. Louis. Players practiced at Francis Field, home of the 1904 Summer Olympics, many of them wearing tattered uniforms salvaged from the previous season.
54. Sam Breadon's Ford Dealership
4701 Washington Boulevard
Sam Breadon became the principal owner of the Cardinals in 1920 and oversaw the team's rise from mediocrity to one of baseball's most successful franchises. His was a classic rags-to-riches story: He moved to St. Louis in 1902 to work as a mechanic. In 1904, with a loan from local mogul Marion Lambert, he opened the city's first Ford dealership. By the time he became a Cardinals stockholder, he was a millionaire businessman selling Ford and Pierce-Arrow automobiles.
55. Stan Musial Statue
Busch Stadium, "Third Base" entrance on Seventh Street (a.k.a. Stan "the Man" Musial Drive)
The statue honoring all-time Cardinals great Stan "The Man" Musial was erected outside Busch Stadium II in 1968 and moved to the new Busch in 2006. It remains a popular meet-up spot before entering the ballpark. When the team won the World Series in 2006, more than a few celebrating fans clambered atop it.
56. Interstate 64 (Highway 40)
Westbound, just west of Compton Avenue
On April 28, 2007, Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock pitched three innings in an 8-1 loss to the Cubs. That night Hancock went to Mike Shannon's Steaks & Seafood for drinks. Sometime after midnight he left the restaurant to join teammates at Café Napoli in Clayton. Westbound on I-64, he crashed his rental SUV into the back of a tow truck that had stopped in the far left lane to assist a disabled vehicle. Hancock was killed. The police report revealed that he had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit, was not wearing a seatbelt and was talking on his cell phone. Police also found marijuana and a glass pipe in the SUV.
57. Interstate 70
Westbound
The 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and the Royals was known as the "I-70 Series," after the interstate that connects St. Louis to Kansas City. Despite losing rookie speedster Vince Coleman in a freak accident with the Busch Stadium tarp before Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals took a three-games-to-one lead in the series. They lost Game 5 in St. Louis but held a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth of Game 6 in Kansas City, three outs away from the franchise's tenth World Series title.
Then came the most infamous single play in Cardinals history: Royals pinch hitter Jorge Orta hit a soft ground ball to Cards first baseman Jack Clark, who tossed to pitcher Todd Worrell covering. Umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe, even though replays showed he was clearly out. The Royals scored two runs to win the game and force Game 7.
There was another game to play, but for all intents and purposes, the Denkinger call ended the series. The Cardinals embarrassed themselves in the finale, losing 11-0; both manager Whitey Herzog and pitcher Joaquín Andújar were tossed from the game by — who else? — Denkinger.
58. Mark McGwire Highway Sign
Exit 243, Interstate 70 eastbound
In 1999 a five-mile stretch of I-70 was named for the Cardinals slugger. In 2005, after McGwire wouldn't comment to a congressional panel about accusations that he had used performance-enhancing drugs, U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay suggested stripping the honor. It remains.
59. Lafayette Senior High School
17050 Clayton Road, Ballwin
This suburban St. Louis high school is the alma mater of Phillies slugger Ryan Howard, the 2007 National League MVP and a member of the 2008 World Series champs.
60. Christian Brothers College High School (Old Location)
Clayton Road and University Lane, Clayton
Christian Brothers College High School is the alma mater of Cardinals institution Mike Shannon. Shannon's career as an outfielder and third baseman was cut short by injury — but not before he was a member of two World Series-winning clubs in 1964 and 1967 and a pennant winner in 1968. In 1972 the folksy Shannon entered the team's radio booth as the partner of Jack Buck, and never left. Now teamed with John Rooney, Shannon and his "Get up, baby!" signature home-run call are a local touchstone — as are his equally frequent references to enjoying a "cold, frosty one."
61. KMOX Radio Tower
Outside Pontoon Beach, Illinois
KMOX (1120 AM) carried Cardinals radio broadcasts for much of the team's history until 2006. The station's powerful transmission tower, currently rated at 50,000 watts, beams its signal far and wide. This helped the Cardinals build a large regional fan base. After the 2005 season, the team moved its flagship to a much weaker station, KTRS (550 AM), in which the team has an ownership stake.
62. Union Station
1820 Market Street
St. Louis Union Station opened in 1894. The structure was designed by German architect Theodore C. Link to look like Carcassonne in France and cost $6.5 million to build. (That's roughly $150 million, adjusted for inflation.) The station became one of the nation's great rail hubs and served as a departure point for Cardinals' and Browns' road trips. Red Schoendienst, who would have a Hall of Fame career as a Cardinals second baseman and, later, manager, came to St. Louis as a nineteen-year-old for a tryout with the club. He had nowhere to stay overnight and prepared to crash in the park across from Union Station — until a rainstorm forced him into a cheap hotel. Union Station has not been a train terminal since 1978. It is now a mall.
63. Lindell Towers
3745 Lindell Boulevard
In 1944 the St. Louis Browns won their first — and only — American League pennant. Their opponent in the World Series? The St. Louis Cardinals. This created a practical dilemma for Browns manager Luke Sewell and Cardinals manager Billy Southworth: Because the two teams shared Sportsman's Park, they were rarely home at the same time, allowing the managers to time-share one apartment. During the series, of course, both teams were in St. Louis.
64. Chase Park Plaza
212 North Kingshighway
Though best known now for his tenure with the Cubs, broadcaster Harry Caray was the voice of the Cardinals from 1945 to 1969. Rumors abounded that Caray was let go after he had an affair with the daughter-in-law of Cardinals owner "Gussie" Busch. Caray and Busch had had a close relationship: After Caray was hit by a car in 1968 while crossing Kingshighway to the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, he convalesced at Busch's Florida beach house. During the season Cardinals manager Tony La Russa lives in one of the hotel's luxury apartments.
65. Anheuser-Busch Brewery
1127 Pestalozzi Street
The powerful Busch family owned the Cardinals from 1953 to 1996. August "Gussie" Busch Jr. played an active role in the team's affairs until his death in 1989, but his son, August Busch III, had little interest in baseball. The Busch family sold the team in 1996 to a group of investors led by William DeWitt Jr. DeWitt's father had worked for the Cardinals under Branch Rickey, briefly owned the St. Louis Browns, and served as the general manager of the Tigers and Reds.
66. Daniel Boone Bridge
Interstate 64 (Highway 40) bridge across the Missouri River
See No. 5, in "Ballparks."
67. Ballpark Village
250 Stadium Plaza (Seventh and Walnut streets)
Ballpark Village was supposed to be an essential element of the new Busch Stadium: a $550-million retail, business and residential development that would rise from the footprint of the old Busch, just beyond the new ballpark's center field. Instead it has become a boondoggle — an embarrassment to the City of St. Louis and the Cardinals. Designed by the Baltimore-based firm Cordish Company, the Ballpark Village concept hit its most significant snag when locally based Centene Corp. reversed a decision to open its corporate headquarters there. As negotiations and planning continued, the site became an eyesore. At one point it was literally a giant hole in the ground that was slowly filling with water. With construction still not scheduled to begin in time for the All-Star Game, the hole was filled in and covered with parking and a softball field.
68. Lafayette Park
Park and Mississippi avenues
In his indispensable oral history of St. Louis baseball, The Spirit of St. Louis, Peter Golenbock quotes nineteenth-century Missouri Supreme Court Judge Shepard Barclay on the origin of baseball in St. Louis: "It was in the early [1850s] that [Jere Frain, a contractor and semipro ballplayer] brought the game to St. Louis. ...He built us a diamond [in what is now Lafayette Park] much the same as the diamond in use today, and in fact, showed us how to play the game." Today Lafayette Park is the home to the St. Louis Perfectos (named after the 1899 version of the Cardinals), who play baseball according to its 1860s rules.
69. The Flower Shop
Clayton Road between Brentwood and Clayshire, Clayton
Like many professional athletes, Cardinals outfielder and stolen-base king Lou Brock leveraged his on-field success into entrepreneurial opportunities. He owned a floral shop, now closed. Detroit News columnist Joe Falls told a story of visiting Brock in the shop and asking what he knew about flowers. "I know a lot about flowers," Brock is said to have replied. "Those are red, those are yellow, and the ones over there are purple and green." Brock also holds a U.S. patent on the "Brockabrella," an umbrella-shaped hat.
70. Lambert St. Louis International Airport
Lambert International Boulevard (north of Interstate 70), Berkeley
At Lambert Airport in March 1989, Cardinals pitcher Danny Cox grabbed a cameraman from local station KSDK-TV (Channel 5) by the throat and pushed him over a chair. (Cox would miss that season and the next recovering from "Tommy John" surgery.) A few years earlier, Cox left the Cards during the season to go to Georgia, where he punched out his brother-in-law, who had been threatening Cox's sister. From 2003 to 2006, Cox managed the Gateway Grizzlies, an independent team in nearby Sauget, Illinois.
71. Delmar Station
5894 Delmar Boulevard
In 1945 Browns pitcher and notorious drunk Sig Jakucki, enraged by the playing time accorded to the one-armed outfielder Pete Gray, tried to beat up manager Luke Sewell as the team train left St. Louis. When the train stopped at Delmar Station a few miles west of downtown, police were waiting to arrest Jakucki, ending his Browns career.
72. The Mythical Pujols Palace
According to St. Louis County revenue records, Albert Pujols owns one home in the St. Louis area, in an unincorporated region just east of the Chesterfield municipal line. The Pujolses purchased the 4,100-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home in late 2002 for $500,000. For the past several years, though, the Pujolses have resided in Wildwood, at an address that's only public if you know how to look for it.
But a few years back an e-mail made the rounds, containing a document that appeared to be a site plan for a palatial new Pujols estate.
The document, which you can download via media.newtimes.com/id/60401, depicted a sprawling plot that appeared to cover about twenty acres. In addition to a big-ass house, amenities included a lake with a waterfall and fountain; a boat dock leading to a barbecue pavilion and rest rooms; three par-three golf holes at 125 yards apiece, and a "ball field" measuring 250 feet down the right-field line and 230 feet in left. The only overt clue to the precise location of the proposed palace was the street labeled at the property's northern boundary: Wild Horse Creek Road.
Wild Horse Creek Road is a pretty long stretch of asphalt, and there doesn't seem to be a Pujolsian "ball field" anywhere along it. But study the contours on the site plan and you'll see that they appear to match up with a patch of land just west of Long Road, not far from Chesterfield Airport — and tantalizingly close to the Pujolses' actual Wildwood manse.
Links:
Map Locations At A Glance: Stadiums
Map Locations At A Glance: Restaurants
Map Locations At A Glance: Baseball Homes Of The Stars
Map Locations At A Glance: Cemeteries